PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to offer transcripts for our programme interviews. Today is broadcast live and the running order is subject to change.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has defended the government's handling of the banking crisis in light of expected record losses at HBOS. And Australian police charge a man with "arson causing death" after a week of devastating fires, which left at least 181 dead.

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0709
The government had "no alternative" but to intervene in the banking crisis. Political correspondent Ross Hawkins discusses the political implications of what was once just a financial issue.

0711
The swearing-in of Zimbabwe's new power-sharing cabinet has been marred by the arrest of a minister. South Africa correspondent Peter Biles explains why the man nominated by the MDC as deputy agriculture minister was seized before the ceremony.

0717
British technology has come under the spotlight at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago. Science correspondent Tom Feilden reports on the device known as the Diamond Light Source - a huge doughnut-shaped particle accelerator - which is being used to identify early signs of Parkinson's disease.

0721
Hillary Clinton has given her first British interview to the BBC since becoming US Secretary of State. State department correspondent Kim Ghattas explains what Mrs Clinton said as she makes her first foreign trip in her new role.

0723
The Sri Lankan government plans to build five so-called "welfare villages" to hold Tamil refugees. Professor Jonathan Goodhand, of the Institute of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, discusses the villages which some have likened to camps used, for example, by the British in the Boer war.

0732
The US Senate has voted in favour of Barack Obama's $787bn (£548bn) economic stimulus plan - clearing the way for it to be signed into law. Correspondent Kevin Connolly discusses how big a victory this is for the new president. Correspondent Duncan Kennedy explains the reaction from the finance ministers of G7 countries who are meeting in Rome.

0743
The first time French president Nicolas Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni met, she described him as having bad manners. French writer Agnes Poirier and novelist Kathy Let discuss new revelations which allege that, on first meeting, they both behaved in a startling way.

0751
Police in Zimbabwe have charged a senior member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party with treason, the party says. Andrew Peta, a Zimbabwean exile and journalist, and Alex Vines, head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, discuss what this means for the power-sharing deal.

0810
Shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke criticises the government's decision to allow Lloyds to take over HBOS where record losses are predicted. And he discusses what the Conservatives would have done differently to ease the banking crisis. Reporter Jack Izzard visits Dundee to discuss if lending in the banking sector has recovered.

0818
The upmarket Oxford Street department store Selfridges is putting on an exhibition of flyers and posters for raves and clubs of the 1980s and 90s. Reporter Nicola Stanbridge considers if the art-form of the rave-going classes has suddenly become respectable.

0823
Sports news with Rob Bonnet.

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0830
Australian police have charged a man with lighting one of the country's deadly bushfires. Correspondent Phil Mercer reports on the 39-year-old charged with arson causing death, for lighting a fire near Churchill in eastern Victoria state, which killed at least 21 people.

0840
It is 30 years since the Iranian Islamic revolution. Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, and Ibrahim Yazdi, former Iranian deputy prime minister, discuss how far the Iranian revolution had been driven by anti-American sentiment.

0846
It has been a gloomy week for Gordon Brown. Unemployment hit a 12-year high, the Bank of England gave further warnings of economic prospects in 2009 and Cabinet minister Ed Balls said the world was facing the worst recession for more than 100 years. Political editor Nick Robinson examines why the language of the downturn has taken a turn down.

0850
US security firm Blackwater - the company which shot and killed 17 Iraqis in 2007 - is changing its name. It will now be known as Xe. Rita Clifton, chairman of global branding consultancy firm Interbrand, discusses if re-branding really works.

0855
The iconic doll Barbie is to celebrate her 50th birthday. At New York Fashion Week, real-life Barbie stand-ins will parade in 50 outfits by top designers. Marketing expert Agnes Nairn and psychoanalyst and author Susie Orbach, discuss if children are still as taken with the dolls as they were half a century ago.

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